Daniel Dubois vs. Mauricio Barragan – Results

By Boxing News - 07/08/2017 - Comments

Image: Daniel Dubois vs. Mauricio Barragan - Results

By William Mackay: Undefeated heavyweight prospect Daniel Dubois (4-0, 4 KOs) smashed an over-matched Mauricio Barragan (15-2, 8 KOs) by an impressive 2nd round knockout on Saturday night to win the vacant WBC Youth World heavyweight title at the Copper Box Arena in London, England.

Dubois, 19, knocked the Uruguay fighter Barragan down twice in the contest. In the 1st round, Dubois dropped the 29-year-old Barragan with a tremendous right to the head. To Barragan’s credit, he got back up off the canvas and bravely fought on. In the 2nd round, Dubois nailed Barragan with a hard left to the body that put him down for the second time in the fight. At this point, referee Lee Cook stepped in and halted the contest. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:41 of the round.

It was a huge size mismatch between the two fighters, as he 232 pound Dubois outweighed the 199 lb. Barragan by 33 lbs. The fight never intended on being a competitive one, but you’d like to have seen a little more of an evenly matched fight than this when it comes to the size of the two fighters. Barragan never had a sporting chance of beating the 6’5” Dubois just based on the size difference between the two guys. If Dubois’ management wants him to progress then they need to put him in with better opposition than this.

The positive from tonight’s win for Dubois was the punching power he showed in the fight. Dubois looked very powerful from start to finish. There’s no questioning his power. Dubois has world class power. The thing that might limit Dubois in the future is his lack of hand speed. Dubois looks very slow with his hand speed. If Dubois were facing some of the better heavyweights in the division like Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder, he’d have problems with their speed. They’re faster than him.

At 19, Dubois is probably about as fast as he’ll ever be. Fighters don’t tend to get quicker as they get older.

This was the fourth win for Dubois since he turned pro earlier this year in April. He’s not being put in with good opposition as of yet. It’s hoped that he can be matched against some of the better fighters in the heavyweight division soon. You can understand why his promoters want to take it slow with Dubois. He’s not yet 20 and he didn’t have a long amateur career despite showing a great deal of promise.

We might not know whether Dubois is going to pan out for another 5 to 7 years at least, as that’s likely how long he’s going to be slowly groomed by his promoter. His management is not going to rush Dubois’ development. That’s both good and bad for Dubois and for them. If Dubois is brought along too slowly, he’s not going to improve.

Certainly, tonight’s fight for Dubois did nothing to improve him as a fighter, since it was one-way traffic for all intents and purposes. If Dubois turns out to be a bust when his promoters do eventually step him up against world class opposition in the distant future, then they will have wasted all those years and a great deal of money on his development. That’s why it’s perhaps for the best that Dubois’ promoters hurry him along a little so they can find out what they have in him. Tonight’s fight showed that Dubois is powerful, but very, very slow. Dubois would have problems against quick heavyweights in the division.

In other boxing results on the card, British welterweight champion Bradley Skeete (27-1, 12 KOs) defeated an over-matched Dale Evans (13-4-2, 4 KOs) by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision. The scores were 120-109, 119-109 and 119-109. Boxing News 24 scored the fight 120-109 for Skeete. He was simply on another level than the 25-year-old Evans. This was not a fair fight. Skeete was clowning Evans, using his amazing boxing skills to make his opponent look limited.

The victory for 29-year-old Skeete was his third successful defense of his British welterweight title, thus giving him the Lonsdale belt. I think it might be time for Skeete to stop thinking domestic level and instead move up to at least the European level if not world class. Skeete is about to turn 30. It would be sad if his entire career is one stuck at the domestic level. He needs to move on if he wants to accomplish bigger and better things with his boxing career.

Skeete is ranked #3 by the World Boxing Organization at 147, and he’s already made it known that he wants to challenge newly crowned WBO champion Jeff Horn following his recent win over Manny Pacquiao. While a fight against Horn or whoever ends up with the WBO belt is possible in the future for Skeete, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

Horn, 29, wants a rematch with Pacquiao, who he recently beat by a controversial 12 round unanimous decision last Saturday night in Brisbane, Australia. If the rematch doesn’t happen, there’s a possibility that Horn could fight one of the other champions a 147 in Errol Spence Jr. or Keith Thurman. Horn has already called out those guys as fighters he’d like to face. Horn also says he wants to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Skeete is a fine operator, but he was already beaten by Frankie Gavin in 2014 in losing a 12 round unanimous decision. That fight showed Skeete’s level or lack thereof. Getting beaten by a fairly one-dimensional fighter like Gavin suggests that Skeete lacks the talent to fight at the world class level. It’s nice that the WBO has made the decision to give Skeete a ranking with their organization, but they’re not doing him any favors by giving him a ranking that he hardly deserves at this point.

Tonight’s win for Skeete was his 9th straight since losing to Gavin. Skeete did have a very good win over Sam Eggington last year in beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision. That was a fight that was closer than the scores that were handed down by the judges. But none the less, it was an impressive win for Skeete, because he showed off his boxing pedigree in beating a solid welterweight.

Other boxing action on tonight’s card:

Anthony Yarde TKO 1 Richard Baranyi

Darryl Williams MD 10 Jahmaine Smyle

Asinia Byfield TKO 5 Sammy McNess

Ryan Garner TKO 1 Tamas Laska